Debate: 2007 season spoiled by scandal?

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The Ferrari fans are railing at McLaren fans for cheating, spying, and using Ferrari’s confidential information to win races.

The McLaren fans are saying the FIA are biased in Ferrari’s favour, that the so-called ‘espionage’ was nothing worse than what has gone on in the past, and that it’s not McLaren’s fault that a renegade Ferrari employee was able to walk out of Maranello with 780 pages on what the team were doing.

McLaren are thrown out of the constructors’ championship, and if one of their drivers wins the championship everyone will say it’s because they cheated.

Has the spy scandal ruined the 2007 championship? Have your say below.

Photo: Daimler Chrysler

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Debate: 2007 season spoiled by scandal?”

  1. I don’t think “ruined” is the word I’d have used – it’s certainly been interesting to say the least!

    It’s probably not something we can judge at the moment, need to wait until at least the end of the season to get see things with a bit of perspective.

    More than likely it’ll take a few years for all this to settle down though!

  2. I know it’s not fashionable to say this, but in a way the politics is part of the fun of F1. The season wouldn’t be complete without the opportunity to give Max Mosley a kicking. It’s just that this year it’s been a bit more spectacular than in previous years (although I guess Indy 2005 is a close rival!).

  3. It hasn’t helped, that’s for certain, but it didn’t ruin F1 2007. What did is dull racing, races mostly won from pole, and little overtaking. It’s an overused phrase, partly my fault (since I strongly believe it to be at the crux of the matter) but this season has only been a classic on paper. The real legacy of 2007 is not the spying scandal, but that the sport itself is failing to excite, and hence the politics becomes almost as much as part of the attraction as the racing.

  4. Sure, I watch F1 for the politics as much as anything else. But I don’t consider personal vendettas exercised through kangaroo courts to be politics.

  5. If the FIA had had the sense to wait until the civil courts had made their decision before levying declarations and penalties, then at least I could have looked upon this season as tidy, if not particularly exciting.

  6. The season shouldn’t be ruined by this because, considering that McLaren are out of the Constructors, surely they could just let Lewis and Fernando scrap it out for the drivers? That would make Fuji, Shanghai and Interlagos worth watching!

  7. I think Max Mosely got it spot on when he said, that if a Mclaren driver wins the title it will be tainted.
    I am hoping Mclaren will appeal the decision, I think if it goes to the appeal the drivers too will be disqualified, and justice will have prevailed.
    They have no arguement and have got off lightly. There is no honesty in that team. Wonder what the Italian courts will rule?

  8. The off track legal activity this season is not as annoying as the back and forth between Ferrari and McLaren throughout 1976.

  9. How can KB say there is no honesty at Mclaren?? For gods sake Ron Dennis took his company into that court room after shopping in De La Rosa and Alonso. If I ran that team there is no way Alonso would be leaving the garage with a racewinning car!!! He brings his team into disrepute and then is given the oportunity to win races by a team principle that he’s not on speaking terms with. No honesty!!!!! What planet are you on????

  10. I started to want to say, “Yes, of course the season is ruined,” but that’s not true.

    For starters, since McLaren haven’t fired Alonso for betraying them, we still have a driver’s championship.

    Though, to me, it’s an anticlimax, like the driver that leads the whole race only to run out of fuel or break down in the last laps.

    I also have to admit that I have not been able to keep up with the more recent proceedings to notice if McLaren have actually done anything wrong; I do not understand how knowing about the other teams’ cars can provide any competitive advantage whatsoever and don’t really comprehend the secrecy exercised in Formula 1.

  11. 1st of all I have to say that Alonso should have been thrown out of teh championship and Mc Laren though a I didnt expect smething like this from Pedro,secondly Ferrari have done this in the past as well always having things changed pointing fingers so that their team is always ahead as Schumi left last season and they seem to be on the back foot to Mc Laren im pretty sure if Renault was leading and Ferrari 2nd they woudl have kept quiet,its Mc Laren thats why all the hulaboo,also FIA has always shown favouritism towards Ferrari always noticed this in the past as well,and last but not the least what do we have 3 drivers out of which 2 have never won the world championship 1 defending his and 1 new guy (lewis) who might just put down a record which would be one of the hardest to equal let alone beat it,im pretty sure we are seeing such a season after a very long time lets just put the scandal behind and enjoy teh rest of the season !!!!!

  12. Nah, best season for ages. The politics is all part of it. I’d still love to see some better racing though – I’ve been getting my racing fix by watching the 125 MOTOGP bikes instead.

    Thanks for pointing out the dodgy redactions in the FIA transcript, it makes much better reading once you can look under the black boxes!

  13. I feel like this season I just keep getting kicked in the balls. It just doesn’t feel good. Pardon the thought but, everyone has stepped on their ***** and really let the fans down. The FIA made a show out of this whole Stepneygate saga. And didn’t those secrets originally come from a disgruntled Ferrari employee? He’s more or less the person to get this whole thing started. It’s all dour for me.

    Gordon Kirby’s recent column reiterates my thoughts. Alonso has been spoiled by F1 and now Hamilton has turned into a similar brat. And Max finally got to taste some of Dennis blood.

    I would be satisfied if Kimi won the championship. Nobody on that grid deserves it more.

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